An Image of Africa

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a renowned Nigerian author, professor, and literary critic. A pivotal figure in African literature, Achebe is best known for his 1950 novel, Things Fall Apart, which precedes No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) in his African Trilogy. As a subject of British colonization, Achebe’s literary and critical works are concerned with the impact of colonization on Igbo culture, making him one of the foremost celebrated West African postcolonial writers.

Achebe was born to evangelical Christian parents who nonetheless valued and upheld their traditional Igbo culture. The confluence of these two cultural influences would deeply impact Achebe’s writing: the rich tradition of Igbo storytelling augmented by a British literary education. An accomplished student, Achebe attended University College, an offshoot of the University of London, which was founded in preparation of Nigeria’s eventual independence from British rule. After graduating, Achebe became a teacher, then a script writer for the Nigerian Broadcast Service. During this time, he began work on Things Fall Apart, which was nearly ignored by the manuscript transcription company to which he sent it. 

Achebe became a writer in response to reading such novels as Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness due to their dehumanized, stereotypical portrayal of Africans.